Infidelity automatically ruins the foundation of any relationship. In some cases, the partner cheated on isn’t the only one affected. Sometimes, even the people around the person who committed the infidelity may also feel hurt.
Take this story you’re about to read, where an employee could not stand their boss’s affair with a younger subordinate. Having lost respect and being fed up with the coworker’s sense of entitlement as the mistress, the person decided to quit after months of keeping silent.
You will find the story as you scroll through, along with some reader comments.
Cheating automatically ruins all relationships
Image credits: LightFieldStudios (Not the actual photo)
An employee was forced to quit their job after losing respect for their boss, who openly had an affair at work
Image credits: DC Studio (Not the actual photo)
Having grown tired of keeping silent for months, the employee quit their job
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A person’s reputation may take a hit for a long time after committing infidelity involving a coworker
You all likely remember the Coldplay scandal that remained in the headlines for weeks in mid-2025. It involved high-ranking employees of the tech company Astronomer, who became the talk of the world for months.
Infidelity will ruin a person’s reputation long after it first shatters, according to Gizem Sultan Kartalcik, HR specialist at Eskritor.
“A leader may find that senior stakeholders quietly doubt their judgment. The employee’s performance is viewed through the prism of the relationship,” she told Bored Panda.
Kartalcik adds that a relationship between the boss and employee immediately skews the power dynamic, where the tilt shows up in different ways. She notes that not only is there softened feedback, but the employee in a relationship with the boss may gain an upper hand through greater flexibility.
It will only be a matter of time before the rest of the team notices the imbalance. And once that happens, the dynamic goes into shambles, which may affect overall performance and productivity.
So, what can employees do in such a situation? Kartalcik advises reporting such incidents to HR immediately, but do so in a way that steps out of the direct line of supervision to avoid others from second-guessing these decisions.
Of course, companies must exercise command responsibly. From the company’s end, Kartalcik says the priority must be to intervene quickly to defuse resentment and be open to adjusting structures before the problems become entrenched.
“Fairness is the emotional backbone of a team. Once people feel that it has been violated, it has to be earned back,” she said.
In the story’s case, the boss does not seem to care about his reputation or whether he is causing disorder within his team. The employee leaving because they lost respect for their leader was beyond justifiable.
Image credits: LightFieldStudios (Not the actual photo)
Some people in the comments had their questions, as others offered their advice
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